Transitioning California’s fleet of passenger cars, SUVs and light trucks into nonpolluting electric and fuel cell vehicles would save the state’s residents as much as $15 billion a year, mostly in health care savings, a new analysis has found.

The report by the American Lung Association also found that the savings here and in the nine other states that have adopted California’s clean-car mandates could be as much as $37 billion a year.

“This is doable, and we would get tremendous benefits,” said Bonnie Holmes-Gen, an author of the report and the association’s senior director of air quality and climate.

Already, nearly 230,000 zero-emission cars are on the road in California, and nationally the number is over 500,000, she said.

The state requires that 15 percent of new vehicle sales be zero-emission vehicles by 2025. Those include battery electric, plug-in hybrid and fuel cell vehicles.

In addition, California provides rebates ranging from $1,500 to $5,000 to those who buy or lease qualifying fuel cell, electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles.

If the state continues policies to promote such vehicles, health costs in California would be reduced by $9.6 billion a year by 2050 through reductions in lost work days, premature deaths and fewer medical interventions for asthma and other respiratory problems.

An additional $5.1 billion would be saved from reduced costs associated with climate change, such as lost farm productivity and increased flood risks, the report found.

The report looked only at light-duty vehicles, and the American Lung Association expects greater health and climate cost savings as medium and heavy-duty trucks also get cleaner.

Sam Chung, a spokesman for Western States Petroleum Association, which represents oil companies, said the group will comment on the report once it gets an opportunity to review it.

David Danelski is an investigative and environmental reporter for The Press-Enterprise newspaper in Riverside, California. He has been with the newspaper since 1990 and has previously covered crime, transportation and city government. He is married to Lorrie Cobain, a teacher and staff development specialist for the Riverside Unified School District. The couple has one adult daughter, Rosemary. who lives in New York City.